Thoughts on Salvation

Salvation!

I have been thinking about what non-believers and nominal Christians think about GOD, most think either that He is a judgmental being that holds people to an unattainable or unreasonable standard. Or that He just does not care what happens to us and in His anger causes bad things to happen to us.

Pastor Chris Leeper said, that many in the Church in America believe that Christianity is all cupcakes and ice cream. Jesus did not teach this, He told us to take up our cross and follow Him. When GOD gives us something He also tells us to give it to others, it’s not just for us.

Joseph Prince said that grace is the flow of GOD’s provision for believers and living under the law squeezes it closed.

Is it oxymoronic to say: “Christianity is about keeping the 10 commandments or going to hell.” and “GOD loves us and excepts us as we are without judgment.” No, actually both are wrong!

Is it oxymoronic to say: “GOD is Love!” and “GOD will judge everyone!” No, these are both true statements.

What do these random thoughts have in common? They speak of the misconception that many people whether believers or not have about GOD.

GOD is Love and He is the Righteous Judge of all His creation! But, He is not going around looking for people to condemn.

“GOD so loves the world that He gave His only begotten Son that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. He did not send His Son to condemn the world, but that through Him the world might be saved. Those who believe in Him are not condemned but those who do not believe in the only begotten Son are condemned already because they do not believe. The condemnation is that the only begotten Son is light and life and they rejected Him choosing evil rather than light.” John 3:16-19 my paraphrase.

The Gospel is good news there is nothing good about hell except not going there. The Church in America fell into the habit of preaching hell fire and damnation trying to convince people to stop sinning so that they would not go to hell. Jesus came as the demonstration of GOD’s love to those already condemned to hell so that in believing in Him they would be delivered from hell. Jesus taught more about the Kingdom of GOD than hell because humanity was already condemned to eternal hell but He wanted to save us to His eternal Kingdom.

Keeping the 10 commandments or religious rules will not save anyone from hell or get anyone into Heaven. Rules and regulations stifle faith and growth, the two things that every believer needs to have in their life. If we make being a Christian about keeping rules and doing works we will choke off GOD’s grace which is the flow of His love, mercy, favor, provision, healing, etc.

No Person Will Go To Hell For Any Sin They Have Committed. Every Person Who Goes To Hell Will Go Because They Rejected Jesus, GOD’s Gift Of Salvation To Humanity! This is the Gospel, the good news that there is true salvation, a gift from GOD!

Dream 11-16-17

Early this morning I had a two part dream. In the first part I was giving an impassioned speech to a group of national political leaders in which I said, “It is not about being the Big DC or the little dc, it is about making the people big, so that they want to give 20 % to support the programs!” I understood this to mean that it was not about the political party or personal gain but making the citizens of the nation successful so that they wanted to give to the government the funds needed to maintain what it was doing.

This is in light of the fact that our founding fathers put their lives, fortunes and there for their futures on the line for what they believed. Not all of them were Christians, not all of them were federalists (those who believed in a central government that controlled all aspects of national life), not all of them were wealthy, not all of them were moral, not all of them had integrity; but they all were willing to put themselves, their families and everything they had on the line for the dream of freedom from an oppressive government that taxed the people for its’ own benefit and used religion to help control the people.

What we see in today’s politicians is an agenda that leads to a larger central government that uses more and more taxation to support itself and rejects Christianity as a moral guide. Most people who become career politicians become selfish and corrupt for the sake of their own political parties’ agenda rather than working for the agenda of the people that they are elected to represent. Most of today’s politicians are driven by the gaining of wealth and political power rather than giving all in support of the people of the nation.

In the second part of my dream I was in a large outdoor area of water and land not in the USA but where there were many Americans. First I understood there was a water born attack that was primarily against the Americans in the area. Then I was a surviving participating victim of the attack seeing it from the beginning, but awakening before the conclusion. I have no understanding of the meaning of this part of my dream.

Foolishness and Pride

Foolishness & Pride

Jesus said, “…whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca (empty head)!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.” (Matthew 5:22bNKJV).

Why does Jesus say that the term fool is so critical that calling a person fool could lead to eternal judgment of hellfire? Because the term fool is a judgment that only GOD can make.

We think of the term fool as meaning a person who is silly (foolish) and makes simple mistakes that the average person would not make. Sometimes we think of a person who repeatedly makes serious mistakes that ruin theirs and others life. Webster’s defines fool as, “a person who lacks judgment; a simpleton; a professional buffoon or jester.”

In the scriptures GOD reveals what His view of a fool is, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no GOD.’ they are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none who do good. To do evil is like sport to a fool, but a man of understanding has wisdom. The devising of foolishness is sin, and the scoffer is an abomination to men. The great GOD who formed everything gives the fool his hire and the transgressor his wages.” (Psalm 14:1; Proverbs 10:23, 24:9, 26:10 NKJV).

Jesus reinforces His statement about judging someone as a fool with His parable of the rich man in Luke 12:13-21, “…But GOD said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’” (12:20 NKJV) and “Do you see a man hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.” (Proverbs 29:20).

In Young’s Analytical Concordance there are several Hebrew words that are interpreted as fool and foolish, their other definitions are evil, boaster, self confident, empty person, thickheaded, brutish, to boast, self confidence, empty, and simple. In the Greek there are also several words that are interpreted fool or foolish in English, their other definitions are thoughtless, unwise, heedless, witless, unintelligent, senseless, foolish, dull, and slow. There is one Greek word moros the definition is, or as in Hebrew, a rebel.

So while we give mostly casual definitions to the word fool; even calling family and friends fool; GOD considers it a much more serious judgment on a person; even an eternal judgment. So take the time to study what GOD’s Word says about fools.

Now for those of you who are a fool there is good news in Proverbs 26:3-12, “Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.” (26:12 NKJV). GOD seems to be saying that a fool is more likely to repent then a proud person, as the scriptures say, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall (stumbling).” (Proverbs 16:18 NKJV).

Yet if you are a proud fool there seems to be little chance you will repent, “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.” (Proverbs 26:4-5). The trouble is that the proud and the fool do not understand that they are so we must pray for our family and friends who are!

Did Jesus Suffer?

How Did Jesus Suffer For Us?

I’ve heard teachings that Jesus suffered by being separated from His Father for our sin because GOD could not look on Him. I’ve heard teachings that Jesus suffered in hell even some who said that He was tormented by demons.

When I was a young Christian and not familiar with the Bible I believed what I was taught by others, as I’ve grown and read and studied the Bible over the years I’ve seen that there are things that are taught that are not supported by the Bible. The two statements above fall into that category I have not found any scripture support for either. If you have some please share.

The standard statement is that Jesus suffered by being separated from the Father for the first and only time because of our sins, that’s why He cried out, “My GOD, My GOD, why have you forsaken Me?” First the Bible teaches that Jesus Christ is the full embodiment of the GOD Head; Father, Son Holy Spirit (John 1:1-18; Hebrews 1:1-4; Colossians 2:1-10). He was never separated from Himself because He could not be He is the one true GOD (John 17:3). This is one of the tricky lessons about GOD that trip so many up, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit are not entities of GOD they are the one true GOD. (Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Mark 12:28-31) Forsaken as used by Jesus is from the Greek word enkataleipo “to forsake, abandon, leave in straits, or helpless,” said by or of, Christ, Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34; Acts 2:27, 31.¹ So we know that the Father could not abandon Himself so He must have left Himself in straits or helpless; on the cross in His humanity Christ was helpless and in dire straits as His life ebbed.

The part about GOD not being able to look on Jesus because of our sin does not make since because GOD looks on sinners, the Bible teaches that His eyes search throughout the whole earth (Psalm 11; Jeremiah 16:17; Zechariah 4:10).

Many support this separation theory with the events of the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus asks the Father to “let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless not as I will, but as You will.” Jesus did suffer but not by being separated from His Father, nor was He tormented in hell. The Bible teaches that GOD delivered up Jesus for our sin, He who knew no sin became sin for us. (2 Corinthians 5:21) Hebrews chapters 7 thru 10 teach about Jesus’ priesthood compared to the Aaronic priesthood, how Jesus is both the priest and the sacrifice, also study Romans 8:31-39.

So did Jesus suffer? Yes He did! He suffered agony in His body from the scourging and crucifixion! He suffered agony in His soul from the rejection by humanity, especially the Jews! He suffered agony in His Spirit as He bore the weight of our sin! But He did not suffer in hell (Psalm 16:8-10) where He ministered to those waiting for salvation leading the captives to freedom (Isaiah 14:8-9; Luke 4:17-20; Matthew 27:45-56); where He defeated death and hell and took the keys of their dominions (Revelation 1:18).

Jesus’ physical death fulfilled the just requirements of the Law and initiated the New Covenant (Testament). His time in hell (study Luke 16:19-31) began the eternal judgment of those who reject Him and the eternal reward of those who believe in Him. His resurrection established Him as Savior of all who believe in the Father’s provision of and Christ’s completed work of salvation and as LORD of all.

¹ Vine’s Concise Dictionary of the Bible, Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2005

How To Alter Your Past

How To Alter Your Past*

We were sitting in his study. He was holding a scarlet cord.

  “I dyed it myself,” said the teacher. “I left it in the solution for several days to make sure the dye soaked into every fiber. Do you think it is possible to undye the cord, to make it white again?”

  “I doubt it.”

  “It is written: ‘Thought your sins are as scarlet, I will make them white as snow.’ It would be like undyeing the cord.”

  “Which would be impossible,” I said.

  “But it’s even more impossible than that. How do you make sins go from scarlet to white? Sins are sins because they are already committed. They’re done. They’re part of the past, and the past is finished.”

  “Then the only way to alter a sin would b to change the past.”

  “Yes, and yet Scriptures are filled with the promise that GOD will one day wipe away sin and wash away our guilt. You can’t wipe away sin or cleanse guilt without changing the past.”

  “But it’s impossible to change the past.”

  “The first recorded miracle of Messiah was the changing of water into wine. But wine is only wine if it is aged. But the wine in the miracle had no past to be aged. It had to, in a sense, be given a new past. If GOD can give a past where there was no past, the He can remove a past where there was one.”

  “So salvation is the undyeing of the scarlet cord,” I said.

  “Exactly. GOD doesn’t just forgive the scarlet cord or pretend that it isn’t scarlet. He changes its past and, by that, changes its reality. He undyes it.”

  “He can do that?” I asked.

  “GOD brought time into existence. GOD can bring it out of existence.”

  “So it’s not simply that everything is the same and we’re forgiven in spite of it. It’s as if we never sinned in the first place.”

  “And even more amazing than that. It’s not just as if we never sinned but, in His redemption, it has become that we’ve never sinned. In salvation, the impossible becomes reality, the guilty become innocent, the tainted become pure, the rejected become those who were always beloved children, and our sins, which were as scarlet, became…as white as snow.”

The Mission: Soak in the undyeing. Receive from heaven your changed, innocent, pure, and beloved past, a past as beautiful and as white as snow.

Isaiah 1:8; Luke 7:37-47; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 John 1:8-9

As Beloved Children

*The Book of Mysteries, Day 17; Jonathan Cahn; Front Line, Charisma Media/Charisma House Book Group; Copyright 2016